GRAFFITI PICTURES LIVE MURAL PAINTING

DRAW GRAFFITI MURALS

GRAFFITI PICTURES! I finally cracked and decided there was
no alternative. I made a big sign, like any respectable derelict, and went to
the streets to protest the world. The amazing thing about sitting there on the
side walk was that I’d finally found a place to talk about humanist ideas and
ideals. People actually started stopping to look at my “save the world” sign
and as a result that sign just kept getting kept getting bigger. What had
started out as sketching in the streets (read more about my street art graffiti
history here) had become a full force large scale mural painting performance. My
crazy-person-save the world was anywhere up 20 x 20 feet and often took up an
entire street corner. Eventually I found crowds of people gathering around me
giving life to my madness while sharing a little bit of their own.

The most interesting and successful part of this experiment was
that the conversations were about our lives, the city, social problems, political
solutions and possible actions towards change. I met thousands of people from
all over the world and in each individual instance, we discussed philosophies
while growing and learning from each other’s experiences. I was no longer a
reclusive pedestal artist but in fact quite the opposite; I became a person,
and a part of the city.

Prior to my street performances I found it really
hard to connect with people because everyone only wanted to talk about
themselves or some mundane gossip regarding their popular interests but somehow
the artwork permitted me the opportunity to initiate a dialogue about things
slightly less superficial. The fact that I never had listen to any of the
typical selfish and meaningless consumerist bull out there was particularly
amazing because I was situated right in the middle of one of Toronto's most popular shopping districts!